


Sunshowers

by ShatteredSwallowtail



Category: Bleach
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-07
Updated: 2019-09-07
Packaged: 2020-10-11 12:28:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20546162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShatteredSwallowtail/pseuds/ShatteredSwallowtail





	Sunshowers

Swearing slightly under his breath, Ichigo glanced up at the faint stuttering sound of raindrops began to play against the flat planes of the windowglass. Brown eyes narrowed slightly as he studied the thin droplets streaking slowly down the window, leaves tapping rhythmically against the glass as the branches swayed with the increasing wind. Flickering sideways, his gaze strayed to the empty cushion sitting in the corner, piles of scattered manga punctuating the conspicuously absent state of the girl who had -- at least up until a few moments before, when he'd bothered to pay attention -- been seated on said cushion, sprawled out and reading those same manga.

He hated rain, he always had, and not just because it had been raining on the day that his mother passed. He'd just... never really felt anything but distaste for the cold droplets that rained down from the heavens, drenching everything they touched. While others looked at the rainstorms and saw new life, renewed vigor to the land and plants and... well, the whole world, really, all Ichigo saw was a whole lot of damned water falling on everything. Rain just... wasn't that exciting to him, really.

And the distaste had just deepened, thickened with time. As hard, painful times in his life were punctuated by it's stinging downpour and the hanging gray of the sky. Rain the day his mother died, rain the day he'd failed to exact vengeance from the hollow who killed her, rain on the day Rukia had first walked out of his life...

Oh yeah. Rukia.

Shaking his head to dislodge the persistent cobwebs -- because he didn't really feel like deep-thinking on a Saturday -- the tangerine-headed shinigami got to his feet, scratching the back of his head as his ever-present scowl found it's place on his face again. That was what he was thinking about at the moment. Rukia and the fact that it was raining, and the fact that she'd vanished at some point. Which meant there was a good chance she was out in it. Which in turn, meant that he'd then have to _deal_ with her when she came back in and whined about it.

Snagging an umbrella from beside the front door, he grumbled to himself as he stepped out, mentally thankful that the downpour was starting to lessen, the driving rain slacking off and dwindling into an even drizzle. Still rain, and he still didn't like it, but at least that meant he wasn't getting drenched and it was falling straight down. Not sideways like it tended to do as _just_ the precise time he _didn't_ want it to. Glancing around, he rolled his eyes as his searching yielded almost instantaneous results in the form of Rukia's slight figure resting against the side of the chimney -- yup, sitting in the rain again. Honestly, he didn't get the appeal, or whatever it was she seemed to think she could wash away with all the damned water.

Walking around the house to where -- yet again -- the ladder was leaned against the eaves, he folded the umbrella up with a significant degree of distaste -- stupid midget, now HE was going to get wet -- and made his way up the narrow rungs, loping across the roof towards her. Rukia had always liked rain, something that he couldn't ever really wrap his mind around. Not only did she like the sound of it, and the smell of it, but she actually liked to _sit_ in it, letting the smooth droplets slide over her skin. It must have been cathartic in some way, seeing as how whenever he found her out in the rain she had her eyes closed, head leaned back just letting the rain run down her face as though trying to wash away some invisible traces of sins he couldn't see.

"The hell are you doing out here again, you'll catch a cold idiot."

He didn't really expect it to get through to her -- it never did anyway -- but it was almost second nature to drop the comment, abrasive tone disguising any hint of concern that might have fought it's way out from behind the walls he kept it in. And he was right, as the only response he got was a snort and a subtle shrug of narrow shoulders as she shifted, closing her eyes against the faint moisture in the air. He was the idiot, to hate this feeling. Which she told him, as she always did, before the faint rays of the sun drew her attention again, mouth turning up into a smile.

"Look, it's a sunshower."

Ichigo's eyebrows raised slightly, it wasn't really like Rukia to be so unguarded, so... sincere about something. But at the same time, neither could he deny that it was _exactly_ the sort of thing he'd have expected her to do as she pointed to where the clouds had broken apart, bright golden rays of sunlight filtering through and reflecting off of the lingering rain in multi-coloured rays of light. A rainbow, shining through despite the dimness of the clouds overhead.

Sighing, Ichigo set his face into a frown, brown eyes still watching her from the corner of his eyes. She was just... well, she didn't make sense sometimes, but then he kind of expected that to begin with, seeing as it _was_ Rukia. And Rukia... just didn't make sense in a lot of ways. She was so different than the rest of his world, almost like a breath of fresh air -- delivered in the form of kicks -- and he couldn't deny the profound effect she'd had on his life. In a lot of ways... she drove the rain in his life away. Not because the rain didn't fall when she was around. It did. But because... when she was there, then the rain's stinging was lessened. Nodding slightly, fighting back the faint smile that curved the corners of his lips.

"Yeah... it is."


End file.
